MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 25, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. I know you say you always have confidence in all your starters, but given how well Freddy's pitched overall, how well he's pitched here, the situation, how much of a boost could he give you tomorrow?

KEVIN CASH: Hopefully it's a seven-inning boost of 105 pitches and he comes out of the ball game with the lead. I'm very confident with all of our guys going. Excited to get back to the Trop and play. I know Freddy is the right guy to pitch Game 3 with us in a two-game deficit.

Q. There was video of Junior in the dugout yelling at some of his teammates. Wonder what you make of that. Do you keep that in house? Is that a sign of good leadership, that he was frustrated with how things are going? It was after one of the defensive miscues, it looked like.

KEVIN CASH: I think more than anything else, Cammy was trying to fire the guys up, fire the dugout up. Knew we weren't playing our best baseball. That happens quite frequently throughout the season. It's magnified at stage of the World Series.

Cammy cares a lot. The players care a lot and we want to play good behind our pitchers without a doubt. He was trying to get the dugout going to have some good at-bats and get some runs.

Q. What have you learned, if anything, from two days of watching the Brewers in person that you didn't fully know just from the videos and the scouting reports?

KEVIN CASH: Not too much. We came in with full respect of how talented they were and how good their bullpen can be, how athletic they are, and how they can put pressure on defenses by putting the ball in play and having lengthy at-bats. So not surprised by anything. But that's a credit to them because they've been consistently good all season long.

Q. And then separately, in a situation like this, do you have to tell your players anything to guard them against all trying to hit five-run homers?

KEVIN CASH: No, I don't think so. I think our guys know that we've got to do everything we can to continue having good at-bats. We've lost two ball games. Not in the position we want to be in. We've also been in two ball games where we're one swing of the bat from tying it or taking the lead.

It hasn't happened. We're waiting for that to happen. Hopefully it happens tomorrow.

Q. You haven't had a lot of blown saves or late inning meltdowns in the playoffs, but is it fair to say that the bullpen hasn't felt quite as locked down as maybe it did a month or two ago?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I think that's fair. You've got to credit the teams that we're playing, and certainly the Brewers, what they did yesterday.

Our guys, I feel like we're making pitches. We're just not making that big pitch when we need to. I go back to Ian Seymour's outing yesterday. He threw 30 pitches -- he gave up a solo homer, and he threw 30-plus pitches, I think. There was a walk in there. There were two strikeouts in there, but he had to work for all of them.

KK followed suit and came in and a lengthy at-bat from Pratt right there, not trying to do too much, takes him to right field.

We're trying to find a way to get that big strikeout or get that big pop-up. We have more times than not this season, but it's been challenging here lately.

Q. Do you think fatigue plays any factor?

KEVIN CASH: I think both clubs are at a point that they haven't experienced this workload very often. I don't know how many guys have played in the World Series on these two rosters, but we're in somewhat uncharted territories. To say that fatigue doesn't play in, I think would be wrong.

We're pitching an added month right now. We're taking an added month of at-bats. But I can assure you our guys don't feel tired. They're just coming in there and doing everything they can to help us try to win games.

Q. Just wondering this time of year when you're so deep, how do you weigh when is the right time to rest guys? What are your instructions maybe to do today as a way to decompress? What does recovery look like versus the balance of trying to keep guys going and maintaining some momentum?

KEVIN CASH: I think our guys are good. I talked to them yesterday -- or two days ago before Game 1 and kind of gave them our thoughts about today. Knowing that we have an off day, let's appreciate the off day for what it was. Come in and get your treatment, do that, and keep it simple.

That's normally how you would run things during the regular season. It's pretty unique to get on a flight at 12:30 today flying out of Milwaukee, to come in and work out after that. Just talking to our guys, they were comfortable with taking the day off.

Q. Kevin, you mentioned the timely hitting. That's something you guys did better than pretty much any team in the majors this season. It hasn't really gone your way the last two days. Is that just one of those stretches or do you credit to their staff?

KEVIN CASH: It's called three names: Uribe, Ashby, and Megill. That's why it's been so challenging. Those guys have been elite relievers all season long, and now we're seeing it in front of our face, and they made it really challenging.